Nationwide Coronavirus Screening for Teachers: One School Already Has to Close

One school has already had to close after educators began a nationwide coronavirus test that began Monday, Népszava learned.

According to newspaper information, ten teachers from the faculty of the Árpád Vezér primary school in Debrecen tested positive on Monday, that is, twenty percent of the teachers were infected.

They had to be quarantined, so education can no longer be replaced by substitutions, so the school was ordered an extraordinary recess from Tuesday and a digital schedule from Friday. The Debrecen Tank District Center did not contest the news, but only said that details of the national tests are expected early next week.

Meanwhile, the number of kindergartens and schools where the Operational Court has ordered an extraordinary recess or a digital work schedule continues to grow significantly. On Monday there were extraordinary breaks in 178 kindergarten groups, 136 kindergartens and 71 elementary schools, and by Tuesday morning, 205 kindergarten groups, 154 kindergartens and 82 schools were already affected. On the first day of the week, digital curricula were created in 388 classrooms and 43 elementary schools, and on Tuesday 420 classes and 52 elementary schools were started during this time.

The Teachers’ Union (PSZ) has also received dozens of comments on the screenings to date. In most institutions, there were teachers who did not take the free test, but the vast majority did so everywhere. Vice President of the PSZ, Gábor Gosztonyi According to the panorama, it is mixed: there are schools where only negative results have been obtained, there have been some positive samples in other places, and there have also been institutions where there were many more infected, typically asymptomatic, than expected. For example, in a school in Békés County, 11 out of 80 teachers tested positive, representing almost 14 percent of teachers.

Featured Image: A university student takes a sample for a coronavirus test from a member of the István Fekete István Primary School in Mosonmagyaróvár on November 24, 2020 Rapid tests of health, social, nursery, kindergarten workers have begun and educators, with health and medical training participants helping as part of a paid two-week internship. (MTI / Csaba Krizsán)